Where there’s a will, there’s a way…

As you can read in my previous blog, I’ve been working with Robb Murphy, singer-songwriter from Northern Ireland for the past 2 years. A while ago I started thinking about writing blogs about my experiences, because a lot has happened over the past few years and a lot has changed. I decided to give it a go and start writing. So here I am, writing another blog.

What started out with sending music to radio stations grew into so much more.
Thinking back makes me laugh, cause how little did I know when I started helping out Robb. Like so many other people, all I saw/heard was the finished product…an album. I never really thought about the work that’s being done before and during the release of an album and what needs to be done to spread the word.
I was lucky enough to see the process of making the album ‘Sleep Tonight’. Robb wrote a blog about it some time ago. Gives an idea of all the work he and everyone involved did to record the album.http://www.robbmurphy.com/RM/Blog/Entries/2014/5/25_Beginnings.html

I really admire the perseverance, creativity and skills of all musicians involved.
Perseverance is probably the most important trait a musician/singer-songwriter needs to have. Without that you really won’t get far. But where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Finding that way is a different story though. There really is a lot of work to do when you’re an independent singer-songwriter and to keep things going, having a helping hand is not an unnecessary luxury. The work is never ending. There are endless options and opportunities and there are so many tools that can be used to spread the word.
But not everything always works and it’s hard to know upfront what will work. You need to try and find out. Do it and after a while you’ll know if something worked out the way you hoped for or not.
If not, then you just need to move on and focus on what does work, try new things and hope for the best.

Hope…that makes me think of a quote from Shawshank Redemption…

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies”

Shawshank Redemption…one of the best movies ever and it makes me giggle, cause something funny happened about 2 years ago…
During a conversation with Robb, Shawshank Redemption came up. It came up because back then I tweeted Tom Robinson (BBC6 Music) every now and then to ask him to play Robb’s music and it reminded Robb of that movie.
Andy Dufresne, the lead character, applies to the Maine State Senate for funding to expand the prison’s library. For years he gets no response to his weekly letters until the Senate finally sends him $200, thinking Andy will stop requesting funds. Instead of ceasing his letter writing, he starts writing twice as often. It results in a major expansion of the prison’s library collection.
I remember that I was joking about it, saying I would tweet Tom Robinson twice a week then to get him play Robb’s music.

I went on tweeting Tom Robinson every now and then….
Robb responded to the next tweet I sent to Tom Robinson, saying:
“she’s going to do an ‘Andy Dufresne’ on you Tom, good luck ;)”
A couple of weeks later I found out that Tom Robinson blocked me on Twitter.

So….here’s some advice…don’t tweet to Tom Robinson to ask him to play a track too often….cause you’ll be blocked. In case you’re wondering….I’m still blocked. Think I’m facing a life sentence here 😉
This is a perfect example of something that totally didn’t work and actually was a waste of time, but what happened is funny! And thankfully there are so many other possibilities and opportunities that do work.

There’s a song Robb wrote about sticking to your goal and not giving up.